screm

Weather has closed in over the last hour, and we are having some rain.

The bit I copied it from was taken from the Edinburgh Speedway Twitter page, take it up with them old bean or have a look for yourself, maybe you can post the bit I`ve missed, but for the life of me I cant find. It was tweeted on the 23rd (yesterday) under the heading "A new era begins". Another madman round here, how would anyone tell the difference. Fair point, I will bare it in mind.

They seem to be a hard lot to please over at Workington, a 4pt away win tonight will see them join Berwick in 4th place in the PL table. This will only be Workington's 4th PL, still lots of meetings and lots of points to race for.

Weather remains the same as posted before, grey sky's and dry.

6-30pm.

Still cloudy but it is dry and has been for some time now.

With averages now changing to a smaller degree over a longer time, riders take longer to move around, but the point is correct that should Kus or anyone else have a spell at reserve that can only be good news for the team. It reminds of the team we had some years ago where Smith, Wilkinson and Piertrasko all had spells at reserve and Berwick had a very good season. Don't see Berwick hitting those scores, I think Workington are far better than that. Could easily be as close as it was last night.

These are the latest Berwick averages issued by the BSPA yesterday. Kevin Doolan 7-16 Claus Vissing 7-12 Mathew Wethers 6-80 David Bellego 6-54 Matej Kus 5-68 Steen Jensen 5-60 Liam Carr 3-00 Team average 41-90. Two things, it looks Vissing will be taking over as No1, and incredibly there is a real chance of Kus going to reserve.

Practice starts at 12-30pm and will last until 2pm, fans are permitted for this, gates open at 11-45am.

As the FIM Grand Prix Challenge event on June 7th is not a Berwick Bandits promotion, we are advised by the BSPA that credit and/or debit cards cannot be accepted at the turnstiles on that evening. Cash only at the turnstiles on June 7th, please! However, cards WILL be acceptable at the Track Shop as usual.

Beware the wounded animal, Berwick`s win last night will bound to make the Workington riders all the more determined to win over here tonight, and their performance a few weeks ago shows that. Berwick will no doubt take a lot of confidence from their win but the Berwick Promotion would do well to make sure their riders don't become complacent, there is a meeting to win tonight and it wont come easy. Weather has started off grey with very light drizzly rain, forecast is this will clear fairly soon. The afternoon will be mostly dry with showers spreading in from the south later this afternoon.

Berwick`s away performances have been in-between shocking and embarrassing over the last few season, so a win at Workington is all the more remarkable. Good to see Liam Carr scoring, ok it was only a point but he didn't have to rely on someone else to get that point and remember the mightiest of oaks start off with a smallest seed. Steen Jensen has giving us a real sting in the tail, and long may it continue. Well done to Berwick.

How typical of Jepson Jensen to jump in to take the limelight when it was NK Iversen who put Denmark in this position.

This has been a busy week in Geneva, with a stream of information coming out from the FIM's headquarters. Much of this was included in our last Black & Gold Bulletin, but knowing extra details has allowed us to proceed with our own plans. As we have provided for previous major events, we will have additional catering on the back straight -- food and a bar -- and our turnstiles will be open from 5pm, with a entertainment programme planned for early arrivals. Edinburgh's Craig Cook and our own Matej Kus will be the competitors with most support of course, but we expect a fair number of visitors from several overseas nations to be coming to Berwick (and helping our local) economy) for the weekend. Matej, Cookie and the other riders are fully aware they are all now just fifteen races away from next season's Grand Prix campaign -- their first five of them on June 7th. Seems it might be a pretty spirited affair! The complete line-up, in riding order, for the meeting is: 1. Chris Harris (UK) 2. Jason Doyle (Australia) 3. Mathieu Tressarrieu (France) 4. Roland Benko (Hungary) 5. Tobias Kroner (Germany) 6. Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark) 7. Josh Grajczonek (Australia) 8. Maciej Janowski (Poland) 9. Linus Sundstroem (Sweden) 10. Tomas Suchanek (Czech Republic) 11. Matej Kus (Czech Republic) 12. Hans Andersen (Denmark) 13. Daniel Gappmaier (Austria) 14. Przemyslaw Pawlicki (Poland) 15. Theo Pipjer (France) 16. Craig Cook (UK) 17. Richard Lawson (UK) 18. Lewis Bridger (UK)

Can someone tell Lemon has moved on from Newcastle to Glasgow, his must be getting on so break the news to him gently.

The FIM rulebook would of better use after you have finished sitting on the toilet.

Mark Lemon has just signed for Newcastle, I wonder if Glasgow know.

Well done Smolinski, that the THE most fantastic interviews I`ve ever heard.

Perfectly good move from Pedersen on Ward, Darcy had a big frilly dress on there.

I`m going but then I`ve only got to go from Berwick.

Don't worry a Courtney Love gig is enough to drive anyone to drink.

Tonight's meeting at Armadale sees the start of a new era at the stadium. In the past forty hours the ownership of the stadium has changed hands and the Cochrane family are now in charge. As greyhound people, their first priority is to make improvements on the dog side but signs of the initial upgrading to the stadium will be obvious this evening. We look forward to positive relationship and to see the stadium improving week by week. A big improvement on last week will be a well stocked bar! Newcastle have called up Scunthorpe National League rider Ryan McDonald to replace the injured Luke Crang. Diamonds boss George English faced a nightmare in finding a last minute replacement for Crang who was replacing Chris Schramm. Four of the Scotwaste Monarchs attended the Armadale Primary School Fun Day at lunchtime today. Aaron, Justin, Max and birthday boy Sam were the star attractions at the school event. Hopefully their efforts will entice some of the children to the stadium this evening. Birthday boy Sam and recent birthday boy Craig invite all supporters to the bar after the meeting this evening to enjoy a piece of their birthday cake.

I think we`ve all been guilty of being over optimistic about our team in recent seasons, though to be fair the promotion put together teams that looked good on paper but never rode to that potential. There was plenty questions about this years team, but they are producing the goods to a decent level so far. Don't see them reaching the play-offs at the end of the season, but from an entertainment point of view I`ve enjoyed the speedway meetings I`ve seen so far, apart from last week the track has been consistently good so its been value for money so far this season. Nooooooooo we could've announced our engagement. Quite happy there is no speedway next week though as I`m off to Prague for the SGP.

Talking sense, like I say it probably wont last. Bottom-licker, I`ve been called a lot worse. On the riders, I post what I see, Kus`s scores and performances of been decent of late after a stuttering start, for reason already put forward by Spittalbandit. Kus now needs to find a consistent level both home and away, if he does Berwick have a rider who can provide the scores necessary to win meetings, it would also take the pressure off a rider like Carr who is finding points hard to come by just now.

Its fair to say the MC have stretched the odd rule from time to time but even they wouldn't let Worrall ride for both teams, though they`ve tried most things so why not give it a go.